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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26475544">Splintered</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elveny/pseuds/Elveny'>Elveny</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Final Fantasy XIV</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Dragon Age 2 - Freeform, Gen, Limsa Lominsa, Murder, None of it explicit though, Origin Story, Original Characters - Freeform, Original Hawke Character (Dragon Age), Seventh Umbral Calamity, Thedas as a shard in the FFXIV universe that got sundered, cross-over</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 09:41:00</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,891</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26475544</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elveny/pseuds/Elveny</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Adriene Hawke has been her family's protector from a young age, making sure that her mage sisters were not discovered by templars. When the Blight comes, she fights as a rogue at her brother's side in Cailan's army - but the war is lost, and the Darkspawn sweep over the land. She flees with her family from the Blight when the ship they took to Kirkwall sinks in a storm. She watches her mother and younger siblings die, but her twin sister, Cassia, is at her side when they are swept into the sea. She wakes in a strange land, Eorzea, that is so different from everything she knows - everyone is a mage, there are non-humans she has never seen before... and her twin sister is no longer with her.</p><p>Eorzea is still reeling from the destruction the Calamity wrought, and she is just one of many refugees trying to find her way. Adriene has just one goal - find Cassia.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Splintered</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is the origin story of my Warrior of Light before the start of the game - my Dragon Age 2 main character Adriene Hawke that I imported to Eorzea. Her existence in Eorzea is based on the idea that Thedas was the shard that got sundered during the Seventh Umbral Calamity, and she was brought to Eorzea by Hydaelyn.</p><p>During the course of the game, the MSQ WoL experiences are shared between several characters (shared world state with awesome FC members FTW). Mentioned in this story are my WoL, <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kunstpause">Kunstpause's Cassia</a>, and <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGolli/pseuds/TheGolli">TheGolli's Layanna</a>. Cassia is Adriene's twin, Layanna is her cousin - Amell from the Mage Origin in DAO.</p><p>For the Dragon Age canon storyline see <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/series/1402660">Precipice of Change.</a></p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They called it a Calamity.</p><p>A catastrophe that threatened to sunder the world.</p><p>Adriene always felt like it did not quite match the feeling that had accompanied it. Calamity sounded too soft for the ragged, raw pain inside her, for the shards that resided where her heart had been that seemed to rip apart her chest with every breath.</p><p>“I’m a soldier,” she told the people who found her, nursed her back to health until she no longer coughed seawater, until the fever went down, until she could stand on her own again. Until she could say something beyond asking for Cassia.</p><p>“Ah,” they said, understanding and sympathy in their eyes. “How did you end up so far away from the battlefield?”</p><p>“I was fleeing with my family. Trying to get them to safety when the ship went down and we jumped. Our home was going to be overrun by darkspawn.”</p><p>Darkspawn. Just one of the words that brought no recognition. Ostagar, another. Thedas. Ferelden. <em> Human. </em></p><p>At first, she wanted to shake them. ‘But that is my world,’ she wanted to scream at them, ‘that is my home, how do you not know it?!’ She didn’t, though. She kept quiet and asked again for her sister. For another survivor. Maybe further down the coast? She couldn’t possibly have been washed all across the ocean to the Unknown Lands, could she? All other alternatives seemed too surreal to consider. Another world was unheard of.</p><p>But the long tails her saviors had, the cat ears upon their head, and the unnatural eyes told another story. That, and the magic.</p><p>There was magic everywhere. <em> Aether</em>, they called it, and it was just another part of their everyday life. Adriene even felt it within herself, a warm, familiar feeling resonating within her whole being that had replaced the bond she had always felt to Cassia, even though it seemed somewhat muted compared to the brightness around her. And it was not like she could use it.</p><p>It didn’t help against the nightmares anyway.</p><p>Every night, she saw the storm again, tasted the salt of the ocean in her mouth as the ship started to capsize. Every night, she heard the scream cut short as Bethany was swept away from them by a powerful wave, the crack of the mast as it fell, sails and ropes shattering on board where Carver and Mother had been just a moment ago. Every night, she felt Cassia’s hand firmly in her own as they came to the railing, nothing but death and storm around them. Every night, she looked at her twin, seeing the blinding fear in her eyes, the moment of decision.</p><p>
  <em> We stand upon the precipice of change. The world fears the inevitable plummet into the abyss. Watch for that moment... and when it comes, do not hesitate to leap. It is only when you fall that you learn whether you can fly. </em>
</p><p>The witch’s words had echoed inside her, her fingers tightening around Cassia’s. And when Cassia had given her a nod, they had taken the leap into the roaring sea. Every night, Adriene lived through it again, through that horrible second where Cassia had been ripped away from her the moment they had hit the water. She had screamed, uselessly, giving up the life-bringing air in her lungs for her cry for Cassia, and the searing pain of the water rushing into her.</p><p>Everything afterward was nothing but darkness. And the voice. <em> Hear, feel, think. </em>The hooded, masked man. The flood of light, and the surge towards her, her desperate reaching for her weapons. And then… she had woken in a world that was not her own.</p><p>A Calamity, they called it, using it to explain her confusion. Adriene didn’t mind their pitying looks, didn’t care for them. All she cared for was trying to find her sister.</p><p>It didn’t take long until she was healed enough to be able to go to search for Cassia herself. “Thank you,” she told the catpeople — Miqo’te, she reminded herself — who had given her a new outfit, weapons, and a pack with food and water, and a little money. “As soon as I find her, I’m going to pay you back. I promise.”</p><p>“Don’t think about that, girl,” they said. “Just be safe.”</p><p>Safe.</p><p>As if that word had any meaning when she was alone. So very alone.</p><p>It took her a week until her supplies ran out and Adriene had to find another village, veering from the coast inland. As soon as she set foot into the little harbor, she knew that going about the whole thing the way she had done had been wrong. Swiftperch was swamped with refugees who had crossed the sea, fleeing from the big battle, and another ship was arriving as she looked. She spent nearly a month questioning people, asking for a woman looking nearly like her, just with white hair, but nobody had seen her.</p><p>Even more so, everyone told her the same thing: there had been no storm in the last three months bad enough to capsize ships. And nobody knew about a lost ship.</p><p>“Must’ve been the Calamity then,” they said, sorrow and understanding in their eyes. “Sorry for your loss.”</p><p>Adriene just bit her tongue to keep herself from screaming and nodded. </p><p>Her fingers were shaking when she gave the last of her coin to the baker for half a loaf of bread. She hadn’t eaten in days already, saving it up while she was busy talking to people. When she wasn’t talking, she was listening, trying to learn as much as possible about this strange, new world. She challenged herself in those moments where she was just watching, trying to name the different people. Miqo’te. Hyur. Roegadyn. Elezen. Lalafell. She pieced the story together from scraps here and there; the big battle, the war with Garlemald. Sometimes, she didn’t even have to pretend too much, people just assumed her mind had been damaged by the Calamity and were eager to jumpstart her memory, telling her about the nations and cities, about animals and landscapes, about leaders and guilds. Trying to sort through the many new things helped distract her from the growing desperation when there was no sign of Cassia. And from the hunger.</p><p>“You’re one of the refugees, aren’t you? I’ve seen you around for a while now,” the baker asked as she gave her the bread, and Adriene nodded.</p><p>“How come you’re still here? Most have passed on by now.”</p><p>“I’m looking for someone,” Adriene said hoarsely, holding the bread close to her chest. “My sister.”</p><p>The baker nodded. “You sure she’ll come here, lass?”</p><p>After a moment of hesitation, Adriene shook her head. </p><p>The baker nodded again as if she had anticipated the answer. “If I were you, I’d go to Limsa. Most ships will try to dock there instead of such a small port like Swiftperch.” She jerked her chin towards the knife at Adriene’s belt. “Also, you’ll find better work there. Not sure if the adventurer’s guild will take people right now what with all the soldiers coming home, but maybe you’re in luck. Can you do anything else but fight?”</p><p>Adriene only shook her head, and the baker shrugged. “Well, good luck then. I think there’s a chocobo carriage leaving tomorrow for Limsa. Here. Take the coin back, you’ll need it for passage.”</p><p>For a moment, Adriene could do nothing but stare at the woman who gave her a smile. “But… but I need the bread,” she said somewhat stupidly.</p><p>The baker only waved her hand. “It’s fine. Go on, lass. You’ve been a good customer and always nice. Take it as a goodbye gift.” She gave her a wink, then nodded at the next customer. Adriene left in a daze, not even thinking about thanking the woman.</p><p>Limsa Lominsa was bigger than any city Adriene had ever seen. But the baker was right, there were ships coming and going every other hour. The one thing Limsa didn’t have was a refugee camp, though. People coming here didn’t stay long. Either they boarded another ship or they left for the inner parts of La Noscea. Those who stayed tended to either blend in to the city or ended up dead.</p><p>Adriene managed to beg a few scraps here and there while she tried to find work. She offered her services as a guard or bodyguard, tried to get hired by the Yellowjackets, but all her attempts fell on deaf ears. There were soldiers coming home from the war with every ship, and fighters were not in high demand.</p><p>And nobody had heard the name Cassia Hawke. A few white-haired women she went after turned out to be a false alarm, and when another month had passed, then a season, Adriene found herself still jobless and on the street. Half a year brought no change. The winter chased her off the streets of Limsa and into La Noscea, exploring the inner lands of the island and trying to find Cassia there, in the fear that she had missed her — but to no avail. Nobody had ever heard of Thedas or of people talking about something like it, nobody had heard the name of Hawke. Adriene took jobs here and there, earning a bit of money that let her survive, but never enough to save something. And her inability to use aether made her less useful than other people looking for jobs, which often left her on the brink of desperation.</p><p>Like so many others, the spring brought her back to Limsa Lominsa, but by then, she no longer cared about nobody wanting to employ her. Limsa was hard and unforgiving, wild and lawless, and Adriene adjusted accordingly. She couldn’t hire on a ship — the mix of nausea and horror when she came aboard prevented her from even considering it — nor did she dare to venture inland permanently to work on a farm for fear of missing her sister should she come here. Or anyone from her homeland.</p><p>It was already way past midnight in late spring when she was sitting in the space she had found a few days ago and that even had a small roof — or something similar at least, the balcony above giving something like a shelter from wind and rain. She had eaten a leathery piece of salt meat she had snatched from a stall on the market place in an unseen moment. During her nearly eight months in Eorzea, she had gotten used to stealing, and by now, she no longer bothered to try and feel bad about it. Nobody could say that she hadn’t tried to do things differently.</p><p>As she looked across the waters, the lights from the city dancing on the dark waves, she slowly sank into the quiet contemplative mood that always took her in the evenings. She had taken to singing quietly to herself in those hours. Sometimes, all those old songs she knew from back home, from that lost world no one had ever heard of; sometimes, just wordless melodies. Slow, melancholic tunes that got lost in the steady sound of waves, and that helped not to think. It was better than the black grief clawing at the back of her mind that came with the mornings, after the nightmares. The few hours before she found a dry spot somewhere high up and behind some barrels to sleep where she allowed herself not to think about her dead family or about the loss of hope and energy that came with every day that she asked around for Cassia and got answered by a shake of the head, if at all. Still, she kept at it. She had to. She owed it to Cassia. By now, Adriene’s inquiries after her had become something of a legend in the inns that were most frequented by sailors, but even though she met quite a number of white-haired women, her sister was never among them.</p><p>Adriene was still singing softly when a shadow suddenly appeared next to her, stopping her song abruptly. She managed to jump up, but the man was quicker, grabbing her by the arm and swirling her around before she could even start to get away, catching her by surprise. </p><p>“A songbird in the harbor, who’d have thought,” the man said. He was tall, obviously a sailor, and judging from the amount of ale on his breath Adriene could smell, quite drunk.</p><p>Not drunk enough to let go of her, though. He didn’t even wait for her answer before he crowded her against the next wall, one hand on her shoulder while the other pressed her against the hard stone. “You’re pretty,” he said leeringly, his hand coming to her breast, grabbing her nearly painfully as he rubbed his palm over it. “You’re not going to be a bitch, are you?”</p><p>
  <em> A bitch. </em>
</p><p>For a terrible, long second, Adriene couldn’t breathe as she was thrown back to another time, another<em> world</em>. Another man. Tellon. ‘Why are you always such a bitch?!’ he had hissed at her before he had beaten her into submission so he could use her. Or, if she was lucky and managed to soothe him, he had just fucked her however he liked. Just like the sailor would.</p><p>A terrified whimper came from her as she stared through the man in front of her, completely frozen. She barely heard his satisfied chuckle through the rush of blood pulsing through her ears, the murmured words as he pressed himself against her, “If you’re good, I might even pay you.”</p><p>Already, he was nestling at her trousers, tearing and pulling, while his other hand held her against the wall and his mouth was breathing hot down her neck, mumbling something encouraging. Then his hand was between her legs, and Adriene realized she hadn’t even noticed that he had pulled her trousers down to her ankles, frozen and terrified as she was.</p><p>As he groaned against her neck, his hand rubbing roughly over her before he went to open his own trousers, she had a flash of clarity. She could just keep still, go to the quiet place in her mind where she was happy and far away from reality, and it would soon be over. Afterward, she would find herself in a familiar position like so many times before. Bruised and in pain, but alive. And Carver would be fine in the coming fight.</p><p>But Carver wasn’t fine, she suddenly realized, and her eyes went wide, filling with tears. Carver was dead, smashed by a dying ship’s mast. He was<em> dead. </em> There was no coming fight. Ostagar was lost. Everything was lost.</p><p>“No,” she groaned in a voice that sounded nothing like hers just as she felt a knee come between her legs to press them apart, and then, everything happened at once.</p><p>Mobilizing every bit of strength she had left, Adriene pushed back, grabbing the knife she felt at his belt and driving it up deep into his heart as he stumbled back. Her reflexes were still the same, she noticed in a strangely quiet part in the back of her mind as she quickly pulled her trousers back up, her breath coming in panicky, short bursts. The man was only twitching twice as he fell to the ground before he lay dead. Her thoughts raced. She needed to get out of here. Even in Limsa, murder was frowned upon, and she couldn’t afford to…</p><p>Her mind came to a sudden halt as her eyes fell to the coin purse at the man’s belt. From the looks of it, it was well-filled; he probably had just collected his pay and spent the first gold on ale. Her gaze flickered down the side alley in which they were towards the louder streets just a few houses down, but nobody even looked their way. She was in a dark corner, after all. Licking her lips, Adriene looked back to the body, then her decision was made.</p><p>With deft fingers, she freed the purse from the belt and pulled the knife out of his heart, wiping it at his trousers. She had sold her own weapon two weeks ago in an act of desperation to get some food, but this would do just fine. Gazing over the low stone wall that separated the walkways from the drop to the ocean, she saw that there were no piers or ships beneath. A minute later, the black waters swallowed the dead man while Adriene was already on her way towards the streets.</p><p>The purse bought her a room in an actual inn for a month, plus food and new clothes. It was amazing what a difference the feeling of a proper bed and food in her stomach made, and Adriene went about her days with new enthusiasm.</p><p>But when the month came towards its end, and neither job inquiries nor the questions after her sister had brought any news, Adriene found herself in another dark alley, quietly singing to herself to lure the man following her into a false sense of security. This time, she was prepared for the moment the song stopped. She left him alive but relieved of all of his coin and found herself a tiny room to rent since it was cheaper than staying in an inn.</p><p>There was a hardness to her smile that hadn’t been there before when another year had passed. Limsa brought the necessary mix of people in her way so that Adriene always found some lowlife trying to get the better of her, someone who let himself be lured into a false sense of power and security by her song.</p><p>It was always the same song, <em> She of the Highwaymen Repents</em>, an old Orlesian song her father had sung to them. She still remembered the excited shiver when she had first heard it, the last song of a convicted criminal standing smiling on the Gallows before her fall to the death. Her mother had admonished her father for singing it to them, but she and her siblings had always loved it with the morbid fascination of children.</p><p><em> Mother dearest, look away, look into the sun. </em> <em><br/>
</em> <em> Other's nearest, gone astray, you will be undone. </em></p><p><em> For no more will I prattle, </em> <em><br/>
</em> <em> And no more will I pray. </em><br/>
<em> Hear you must the rattle, </em> <em><br/>
As life will fly away. </em></p><p>Most of the time, she didn’t manage to come to these last lines before the men trying to get the better of her inevitably failed, falling under her knife or begging for their life. Whether they lived or died, Adriene left with a full coin purse that paid for all she needed to survive.</p><p>It was a cold spring night when Adriene took down a thug behind a corner, leaving him whimpering on the floor while she cut the purse from his belt.</p><p>“I had a feeling that was you,” a voice said behind her.</p><p>Adriene swirled around, falling immediately into an attack stance, but the man before her just held up his hands in defeat.</p><p>“Hey now, I’m not judging. Saw him follow you, came to help. But then I heard you sing. Looks like you don’t need no help.”</p><p>He was a Hyur, tall and bulky, and from the looks of it, at least ten to fifteen years older than she was. He was dark-skinned and had a look about him that told Adriene that he took no shit.</p><p>“I think I heard of you,” the man said with a bright smile and a gleam in his eyes. “You’re the Nightsiren.”</p><p>Adriene scoffed as she slowly relaxed. He had something about him that told her he would not suddenly attack her. Still, she kept her knife unsheathed. “I think I’d know that,” she said, weighing the coin purse in her hand. It was not as full as she had hoped it would be. Shit. She had been cutting it close these last weeks after one sailor had gotten the better of her.</p><p>“Come on. You’re saying you’re not the ghost woman with the siren song who lures men into dark alleys where she beats up and kills those who are trying to take advantage of her?” The man grinned when he saw the flicker of recognition on her face.</p><p>Adriene swallowed. She knew people had noticed her pattern, but she hadn’t known that they had an actual nickname for her. That was not good.</p><p>The man seemed unbothered. On the contrary, he seemed delighted. “You <em> are </em>the Nightsiren! I’m Thorain. I heard the sailors talk about you.”</p><p>Adriene scoffed again, but something in his words had gotten her attention. “You’re not a sailor then?”</p><p>“Me?” He laughed. “No. But if you want to know about me, how about you let me buy a drink and I’ll tell you all about me.”</p><p>His brazenness actually made Adriene laugh, a rare sound that smoothed some of the edges of the shards in her heart. “I think not.”</p><p>Ignoring the groaning man on the ground behind her, she started to walk away, but Thorain called after her, “Come to the Seagull one of these days, will you?”</p><p>When she didn’t answer, he called again, “I’ll see you then, Nightsiren!”</p><p>It took her another month until her curiosity got the better of her, and she slipped into the Seagull, a tavern at one of the lower piers. It took her a moment until she saw him. Thorain was working behind the bar, filling a few tankards with ale and passing them over to a barmaid. Quietly, she sat down on a stool in the far corner of the bar, watching him while he talked and smiled to customers or the people waiting the tables. It was a busy night and so it took him a while until he noticed her.</p><p>The way his face lit up made Adriene smile back before she thought better of it.</p><p>“I knew you’d come,” he said and put a tankard in front of her, a broad smile on his face.</p><p>“Did you? I didn’t even know myself,” Adriene answered lightly and pulled the tankard towards her.</p><p>“It’s the gift of the bartender,” he winked. “I can read people.”</p><p>Adriene snorted, but already she felt something of the weight around her heart lift. Somehow, Thorain’s presence made her feel more like herself and less like the thug she had become.</p><p>“Is that so?” she said, the smile still on her face. “So what have you read in me?”</p><p>For a second, he hesitated, his eyes surprisingly intense as he looked at her, then he laughed. “Nah, you know what? Later. Let me introduce myself properly this time.”</p><p>Amused, Adriene watched how he motioned to one of the people working the bar to take his place and pulled a stool up himself, sitting down next to her. “My name’s Thorain,” he said, still that honest, bright smile on his face as he put a hand on his chest, “and this is my bar.”</p><p>He looked expectantly at her, but Adriene hesitated. Normally, she wasn’t shy about giving her name out — every person that knew her name could potentially tell Cassia about her if they met her — but Thorain knew that she was a murderer. Then again, he hadn’t turned her in to the Yellowjackets or The Maelstrom for a month already.</p><p>Before she could come to a decision, though, Thorain’s smile widened. “Did you find your sister yet?”</p><p>For a second, Adriene could do nothing but stare at him. “What?” she eventually managed.</p><p>He just laughed, a dark chuckle deep in his chest. “You’re looking for your sister, aren’t you? It took me a while until I brought it all together, but I knew I had seen you before. You’ve been here a few times inquiring after your twin sister, right? White-haired, looks otherwise like you?”</p><p>Adriene’s eyes went wide, but Thorain held up a hand. “No, I haven’t seen her, sorry. But yes, that’s you.”</p><p>Her breath left her in a rush and her shoulders sank. Adriene felt like someone had doused her with cold water, and the smile bled from her face in an instant. So this was it. Someone had finally found her out, had made the connection. “What do you want from me, Thorain?” she asked tonelessly.</p><p>“I want you to work for me,” he said. Adriene wouldn’t have thought it possible, but the grin on his face widened as he said it, a spark in his eyes.</p><p>Slowly, she pushed her otherwise untouched tankard away from herself as she stared at him, feeling ice-cold. </p><p>“I’m not an assassin,” she said curtly, even though she knew that it was useless. Of course she would be an assassin if he demanded it from her. Right now, Thorain had all the cards in his hand. He could just turn her in, and then, all of her struggles would be in vain. And she refused to let it be so. Even though it often didn’t feel that way, the spark of hope inside her that Cassia was alive and out there was not dead yet. She would not stop, she<em> could </em>not stop looking for her. If she got caught and hung, all of her sufferings would be for nothing.</p><p>“No, I know,” Thorain said cheerfully, taking a big swig from his tankard. “I can read people, remember?" He winked at her, but it did nothing to soothe her. "You know, the last time you were here in the tavern and asked for your sister, you looked like you hadn’t eaten in weeks. Now you don’t.” To his credit, he did not look her up and down at the words. “And I saw you taking the purse from the asshole that night. Figured that that was what made you go rogue, so to speak. People falling on hard times do a lot of stuff in order to survive.”</p><p>Adriene still barely dared to breathe, holding absolutely still. He still hadn’t told her what he wanted her to do. She knew the Seagull didn’t offer company for the night, so he probably didn’t want her to whore for the bar, but if he didn’t want her to kill for him either… what else was she good for?</p><p>Thorain barely seemed to notice her shell-shocked state and just continued in his cheerful manner, “And honestly, I don’t really mind a few thugs less on the street. One of the girls working for me told me of a dark-haired woman beating the crap out of a pirate who fondled her. Was that you as well?”</p><p>She swallowed. “I don’t know,” she whispered. “Maybe.” She had a few times taken the focus off another woman if she happened upon such a situation, but it was not like she was patrolling the streets or anything. She was not one of the Yellowjackets, after all.</p><p>“Doesn’t matter,” Thorain waved her words away. “Whether you were it or not, a lot of women have taken to singing while going home, and sailors are suspicious of that, so they feel safer. Actually are safer that way. It’s a good thing you do.”</p><p>Adriene blinked and stared at him. “What?” she managed after a too-long pause. She remembered the blood on her hands that was there in too many nights only too well. The struggles, the injuries, the pain. The few times where she didn’t manage to do what she had intended to do and how she had suffered through it. And the sounds of death that came when her knife struck home. <em> That </em>was supposed to be a good thing?</p><p>Thorain nodded, giving her a smile that seemed somehow softer than before.</p><p>“Yeah. So, do you want to work as a bartender here? We need someone who can take care of themself.” He pushed the tankard back towards her. “And you’re also pretty and charming. Oh, and you can still ask after your sister with so many sailors coming through. It’s the perfect combination.”</p><p>“But…” Dumbfounded, she still stared at him, completely overwhelmed by the situation. “You don’t even know my name.”</p><p>“Don’t need to to offer you a chance,” he just said.</p><p>That night, Adriene went home to her tiny room with something like hope for a future for the first time in two years. The following day, she returned to the Seagull before it opened for the night. Thorain was cleaning tables in the otherwise still empty tavern, looking up as she came in.</p><p>“I’m Adriene,” she said instead of a greeting, and his whole face lit up.</p><p>“Welcome to the Seagull, Adriene,” he said. “Let me show you around.”</p><p>The tale of the Nightsiren somehow survived, even though Adriene no longer roamed the streets of Limsa at night after that. She did, however, teach all her fellow barmaids and bartenders the basics of fighting with daggers, and soon, the Seagull was known as a tavern where inappropriate behavior did not only end with being thrown onto the street or into the water.</p><p>Over the course of the following years, Adriene slowly relearned to laugh, and her smile softened again as the songs on her lips changed. She found that she actually liked the job in the bar, the company and the flirting, the celebratory good mood of most days, and the challenge of keeping an eye on everything. And when she found herself in Thorain’s bed after a year had passed, it was out of her own volition, not because someone forced her to. The rediscovery of the pleasure of her own body opened up a whole new way of living for her again, one in which she was in actual charge over every aspect of her life. It was not really a relationship they had, but that didn’t change the way her heart sped up when he smiled at her or the fact that they more often than not woke in the same bed.</p><p>And every coin that was passed to her, every tip and everything of her salary that was not spent on necessities went into her secret stash. Now, she actually could save up for the journey that lay ahead of her.</p><p>“Thorain.”</p><p>He looked up from the books he was writing in, but the smile at seeing her disappeared nearly instantly. Instead, he put his quill aside and leaned back in his chair.</p><p>“You have enough money,” he stated with a defeated voice, and Adriene nodded.</p><p>“How long has it been?” Thorain asked after a long pause.</p><p>“Four years tomorrow,” she said quietly, sitting down in the chair opposite him. “Approximately.”</p><p>“Adriene…” he started with a sigh, but she shook her head, looking down on her hands that she had clasped in her lap.</p><p>“Don’t,” she just said softly.</p><p>She knew what he wanted to say.</p><p>
  <em> Can’t you let it go? Can’t you accept that she’s gone? Can’t you build a life here? With me? </em>
</p><p>But she knew she couldn’t. No matter how much it pained her to leave him behind, there still was a chance that she might find Cassia. A desperate, hopeless, slim chance, maybe, but a chance nonetheless. Somewhere deep inside, there was something that refused to give up. Something that just <em> knew</em>.</p><p>“You could come with me,” she said, eyes flickering to meet his sad face.</p><p>But the silence that met her words told her enough. He wouldn’t leave Limsa Lominsa for her.</p><p>No matter what they had shared, this one thing that was most important for her was something he had never understood. He had stood by in incomprehension as she traveled through La Noscea in winter, going to all the ports to ask after her sister. He had tried to get her to move in with him, had shaken his head at her refusal to spend even a single coin too much on anything, at her insistence on training whenever she could. He had never tried to stop her from doing any of it, but it had always been an indulgence, not acceptance or understanding. It was the one thing that had prevented her from loving him unconditionally.</p><p>On a warm, calm summer day, Adriene left Limsa and La Noscea behind. She took it as a blessing and a good sign that the sea was calm as she set over to Mor Dhona. It made the passage somewhat easier, despite the horror that kept her glued to the rails and the horrible seasickness that held her in its grip from the moment she set foot on the ship.</p><p>At least she saved most of her supplies that way, she thought once she had solid ground beneath her feet again.</p><p>It still took her a few days to recover before she was able to go on, making her way through the land towards Gridania. She didn’t bother going along the coast. It had been four years, the chances to find her inland were just as good as finding her there.</p><p>But instead, she found Layanna.</p><p>As she held her cousin in a close embrace, the unexpected treasure that was a link to her lost home and to her family, it was the first time that she was able to cry. They ended up talking for hours until they fell asleep and continued talking the following day. Adriene felt like she might never stop being torn between laughing and crying again.</p><p>What had withered and slowly, painfully died inside her came back to life with full force, a hope that burned so bright it brought a new light into Adriene’s eyes. It felt like the whole world had gotten more colorful.</p><p>It was also Layanna who brought back the flyer a few months after they had found each other.</p><p>“Look at that, Adriene,” she called out before she had even properly come in. “Look what I found!”</p><p>“What’s this?” Adriene asked, wiping her hands on a cloth before she took the piece of paper Layanna waved at her.</p><p>“A flyer!” her cousin said. “A flyer of the Majestic Theatre Company!”</p><p>“Majestic… Garlemald?” Adriene’s eyes widened, but Layanna waved her comment aside.</p><p>“Yes, but that’s not important. They’re coming to Eorzea for the first time in… I don’t know, it’s been a while, if ever. But look at her!” She stabbed her finger onto the face drawn in the middle of the flyer. “Don’t you think she looks like you?”</p><p>Adriene frowned and tilted her head, a familiar burst of hope in her heart as she saw the white locks, the soulful eyes. There was indeed a faint familiarity in the drawing, but Adriene bit her lip, trying to rein her excitement in. “Who is she?” she asked.</p><p>“One of the main actresses of the Company,” Lay explained. “What if… what if it’s her?”</p><p>Without thinking about it, Adriene grabbed Layanna’s hand, holding it tight while she still stared at the flyer. “I don’t know, Lay,” she eventually said softly. “I mean, yes, there is a vague familiarity, but… Do you really think…”</p><p>“Only one way to find out,” Layanna beamed at her. “What do you say?”</p><p>It took Adriene another moment before she took a deep breath and looked at Lay with the same excitement in her eyes. “Alright. Let’s go to the theatre.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Come and say hi on <a href="https://elveny.tumblr.com/">Tumblr</a>. ❤</p></blockquote><div class="children module" id="children">
  <b class="heading">Works inspired by this one:</b>
  <ul>
    <li>
        <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26772808">By Whatever Means Necessary</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kunstpause/pseuds/Kunstpause">Kunstpause</a>
    </li>
  </ul>
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